[stderrout]

Always surprised how little Alexa changed over the years from initial version. Both on software and hardware there could have been so much possibilities and learning from years of user feedback. Appstore and skills deserted from years of broken to unusable functionality. Hardware remain stuck to initial speaker version where there was possibility to replace so many dedicated boxes around house each connected to power supply providing singular function - Access Point, routers, smart device gateway, streaming device, NAS for backup or private cloud, etc

Last one failure for entire BigTech where desire to maintain control prevented any form of standardization or interoperability to the point where hobbyist open source solutions are now leading on how to do smart home right way and not abandon user base in 6 months after release.